The Samsonadzes, An Animated Knockoff of ‘The Simpsons’ Made in the Republic of Georgia

In 2009, Shalva Ramishvili (talk show host and the well-known co-founder of a Tbilisi-based private TV station), created and first aired The Samsonadzes in Georgia. The animated sitcom was a delightfully low-rent knockoff of The Simpsons and while it featured a cartoon family that is visually very similar to the U.S. series, their version is decidedly more political, consistently poking fun of the Russians. In a Russia Today interview from early 2010, the show’s chief scriptwriter, Zviad Bliadze, stated, “They are as different as a Georgian and American family can be. We just took an average family and made a parody of the common traits, like laziness or love of alcohol.” According to a 2009 article in The Independent, Ramishvili “insisted the show was not a carbon copy of The Simpsons, but more of a tribute that used similar ideas but adapted them to the local context.” The show starred a bank employee named Gela Samsonadze (the “Homer”), his wife, two kids named Shorena and Gia, and a parrot named Koke.

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